August 29/00 2:35 am - Frischknecht To Get Official World's Recognition

Posted by Editor on 08/29/00

Frischknecht To Be Presented with Rainbow Jersey

We heard rumours of this a few days ago, but now it is official: the UCI will hold a ceremony to present Thomas Frischknecht with the 1996 world champion's jersey and medal at the World Cup Final in Lausanne, Switzerland next weekend.

You may recall that Jerome Chiotti, who won in Australia that year, confessed to drug use earlier this year. He held a press conference to present his jersey and medal to Frischknecht (who was the silver medallist that year). The UCI and the French Cycling Federation have been slow to officially recognize the change - the only quasi-official recognition was at the Worlds this year, when Frischknecht was part of the presentation of the first decade of mountain bike champions, but no formal announcement had been made until now.

Frischknecht (Switzerland) will now go in the record books as the 1996 world champion, Norway's Rune Hoydahl gets the silver, and Hubert Pallhuber (Italy) moves up to bronze